‘Malawi government won’t buy Presidential Jet’
State House in a statement yesterday said government has no intentions to buy a presidential jet.
The statement comes after Information Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa hinted last week that government may consider the issue of purchasing a presidential jet if the economy recovers.
In a statement, the State House press secretary Gerald Viola said what Nankhumwa did, was just to explain the burden and flight delays whenever the President is travelling using commercial flights with a suggestion that if the country owned a private Jet, problems faced during these travels would not have been there.
“He did not indicate that Malawi government must purchase a private jet for President Mutharika. Once again, the Mutharika administration has no plans of buying a Presidential Jet for Malawi,” Viola said.
Nankhumwa told The Daily Times last week that government can avoid expenses associated with chartering aircrafts for the president by simply buying a presidential jet.
“In all fairness every country needs a presidential jet for convenient travelling; and as government we still think it was a mistake to sell the jet that was bought,” said Nankhumwa in an interview.
He said much as some people advocate for the president to be using public flights, there are several setbacks with that arrangement including loss of time.
“The President experiences a lot of inconveniences like time losses in flight connections, and hence affecting his programmes whenever he is on public flights,” Nankhumwa said.
His comments came af ter some people questioned the cost effectiveness of chartering aircrafts for the president when he is on foreign trips.
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